Bush's most interesting decision points

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Former President George W. Bush looks out the window of Air Force One over New Orleans to survey the damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In his memoir 'Decision Points,' published Nov. 9, Mr. Bush reveals, “As leader of the federal government, I should have recognized the deficiencies sooner and intervened faster.” Susan Walsh/AP/FILE

Former President George W. Bush declares the end of major combat in Iraq as he speaks aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast in 2003. “[W]e did not respond more quickly or aggressively when the security situation started to deteriorate after Saddam’s regime fell,” Mr. Bush writes in his memoir 'Decision Points,' published Nov. 9. He adds, "cutting troop levels too quickly was the most important failure of execution in the war.” J. Scott Applewhite/AP/FILE

Former President George W. Bush walks through the columns of the West Wing Colonnade to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington to make a statement about the financial crisis in 2008. "I assumed any major credit troubles would have been flagged by the regulators or rating agencies," Mr. Bush explains in his memoir 'Decision Points,' published Nov. 9. Charles Dharapak/AP/FILE

Former President George W. Bush (center), flanked by outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld (l.), and his Defense Secretary-nominee Robert Gates, speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in Nov. 2006. In his memoir 'Decision Points,' published Nov. 9., Mr. Bush says that he had “planned to make a change at Defense as part of a new national security team” earlier that year, but could not find a replacement until an adviser recommended Mr. Gates. Gerald Herbert/AP/FILE

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, left, looks over to former President George W. Bush, after the president received an update on Hurricane Ike and relief efforts on energy matters from members of the Cabinet, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington in 2008. In his memoir 'Decision Points,' published Nov. 9, Mr. Bush writes that in 2004, Mr. Cheney suggested Bush drop him as a running mate; Bush dismissed the idea. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/FILE

Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, former Chief of Staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney, leaves the courthouse after being sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for his role in the CIA leak case involving CIA analyst Valerie Plame. In his memoir 'Decision Points,' published Nov. 9, former President George W. Bush says that Mr. Cheney was so furious that Bush would not grant a full pardon to Mr. Libby that Bush worried his friendship with Cheney was over. Larry Downing/Reuters/FILE

Kanye West performs at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards in Miami, Fla. In his memoir 'Decision Points,' published Nov. 9., former President George W. Bush recalls that when Mr. West blasted him on an NBC telethon by saying that "Bush doesn't care about black people" because of the way the government was handling the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, it was the most painful part of his presidency. Mike Blake/Reuters/FILE